Michael & Liz are Bloggable

Running has been such an after thought lately for me. With Liza here and the summer heat and so much fun in my life it's been tough to make time for an activity that makes me miserable. But as miserable as I feel while running lately, I'm going to drive on and train for the marathon I'm running on October 26th, The Marine Corp Marathon. Here's a link to the course.

This blog post is just as much for me as it is for any readers who care about the fact that I like to run. Ha! I just just said "like". I used to like to run but lately it has felt like a chore and something I am doing because I feel like I have to. To be honest, I do have to. If I don't run, I slowly gain weight and I have noticed lately that my endurance has really not been the same as it used to be. Weight gain has come to a crawl though since I've been eating more organic food and eating more in the house rather than going out all the time but it's still there. So I have no choice but to continue to run and force myself to like it again. It's just my performance and the results that have pulled me down.

So I am currently in week 4 of the 18 week marathon training, which requires a 3 mile run today, 4 mile run Wednesday, 3 mile run Thursday, and 9 mile run on Saturday. So far the longest run I've done is 6 miles and I've done that 3 times in the last month. Two of the times went fine(54ish minutes) but the last one, this past Sunday, was miserable. I ran with John which normally means my competitive spirit comes out and we have a great run, but 3 miles in I just threw in the towel and we ran/walked all the way to the end. I am not going to use this as an excuse but we ran at 1PM and I hadn't had any lunch, I biked to get there which is a 5 mile bike ride on a mountain bike, and it was mid-90's and really humid. It was a recipe for disaster so I can't be too bummed about it but I also am not thrilled to ever have a bad run.

So this will be the first week I will actually stick to my training. To avoid the heat Saturday I am going to run on a treadmill at the gym so that should really improve things since I have no heat to compete with. I am going to try my best to update every week on the blog on how I am doing in running just to keep myself motivated. I want to get back to where running is fun and feel great doing it. I am running the marathon with a friend named Brandon from school and I read his blog about how lately the first mile is miserable and the rest is great. I remember those times and I'm going to work to get back to them. His blog has been really motivational for me but at the same time I envy the brand new exciting feeling of running and succeeding for the first time. For me though it has just been miserable the whole way through so far. I'm both out of shape and completely exhausted of motivation.

So as I push "publish post" I am heading out to do my 3 mile run and I won't stop until I complete it. Then after the run I am playing a softball game. Just like the first time I used the program, I'm going to once again rely on the training program to prepare me and trust that I will improve.

For anyone interested in seeing the training program, it is put together by a man named Hal Higdon. I followed this same program for my first marathon and it went spectacularly. The second marathon, I attempted to follow his "Intermediate I" program but toward the end I trailed off and did my own thing. I mean if you look at some of the weeks, it asks you to run 8 miles and 12 miles in back to back days. No thanks.

I'm sure inquiring minds want to know how Liza is doing and how we are doing with her? I keep saying I will blog when I have time and I promise I will. It's just whenever I get the time she then picks that time to annoy me and I don't want to blog when I'm annoyed. So alas, it gets put off. 80% of the time she is wonderful but the other 20% of the time she gets an attitude that even baffles the interpreters. Maybe that's what her Mom meant when she emailed us and the first thing she asked was "How is her behavior?"

Maybe tonight after softball I will blog about her.

Since Brandon started a mile counter during training, I might as well post one and keep track: 24